food.travel.photography.&.cats

Tag: park

Having hibernated through the winter season, we finally got off our butts to do some outdoor activities. While still cold, but with sunshine, we headed north to enjoy some snow! This time, we decided to take our cat Yun Yun on a road trip with us. I’ve always wanted to go on trips with the pets. Although dogs may be more ideal, right now I only have cats, therefore my perfect candidate is Yun Yun for her sense of adventure. We left Bumbe to snooze contently at home, knowing well that any disturbance in his rountine will stress him completely.

On our drive, we saw a turnout at Eldorado National Forest and decided to take a look. Yun Yun was most excited being out of the car and on solid grounds. We attached a leash on her and she immediately took charge exploring her environment. Suddenly the shock underneath her paws were cold and wet and Yun Yun just froze in one place. I held her and she quickly accepted and wanted my warmth and protection. I felt so needed and loved:) Yun Yun perched on our shoulders as we stroll around the winter park. I gave her the detachable furry part of my hood to wear. She looked ever so precious and glamorous. We ended the trip making a snow-kitty. After a day of new experiences, Yun Yun fell asleep on my lap all the way back home.

Redwood National Park is one my favorite place to camp. It is absolutely breathtaking and amazing being surrounded by the tallest and biggest trees ever. My bf and I went camping in the fall time and the weather was cool as the park sat along the coastline, yet moist. We experienced some rainfall, but being deep inside the woods, all the gigantic trees gave us good coverage.

We stayed at the Jedediah Smith Campground. Since this trip was off season, there was no reservation taken and our host allowed us to circle around the campground to find the site we liked. We decided to be nearby the river and set up tent between two huge trees to shield us from the rain. The camp site was beautiful, spacious, and peaceful. It had a nice cobblestone wall separating each campsites and acted as our front door to the home sweet home for the next few days. There were hardly any other campers around, which gave us lots of privacy and the whole park to ourselves. Our “backyard” with the river view had lots to explore like cute little frogs.

Hiking in the redwoods was such an unbelievable feeling. It was completely shocking, quiet, and time just about stopped for a while. Simply just you and nature. I came realized how small I am in comparison to this world. Some of the hiking trails were closed for the season, so we basically wandered around the lush woods, thinking we were following a trail and losing it again. I was hoping, “Let’s not get lost … let’s not go too deep.” Worried about my lack of survival skills, despite a marathon of watching Man, Woman, Wild, we were swallowed by the forest and not a person in sight. Yip would say, “Let’s walk for a little more” and a little became hours. Definitely quite an adventure, and we made it back to camp happy and hungry.

Our other favorite thing about camping aside from wondrous scenes nature offers is Camp Food! I love Yip’s cooking and so thankful he does it all. During our trip, he cooked a whole chicken, eggs and bacon for breakfast, steak and rice stew, plus perfectly baked potatoes. I contributed by making s’mores:) Plus leftovers on the ride back home were super delicious!

Our tent set up kept us perfectly dry! We really want to go back again because there is so much of this beautiful park to explore.

Happy Moon Festival! This year I am making an effort to celebrate Moon Festival on my own. Since moving away from home for a few years now, certain holidays have just been casually acknowledged. Moon Festival is such a great holiday to bring family and friends together, it is definitely a tradition I want to keep and pass along. In my childhood, we will lay out fruits, tea, and mooncakes on a table by an open window facing the moon. At night, mom will gather us together to observe the bright, beautiful full moon with lit lanterns and candles. Then we’ll go ahead and eat throughout the night until bedtime. In my nostalgic endeavor, Yip and I went to the Asian markets to buy mooncakes and an assortment of fruits. Here are some festive fruits we got:

Longan “Dragon Eye” (Doesn’t it look like an eyeball with its lacquered black seed)

Star Fruit

Dragon Fruit

Lotus seed paste and egg yolk mooncakes are Yip’s favorites. Most friends I know simply eat a slice and we are good for the year! Yip is the only one I know who can eat a whole box of mooncakes by himself! So it was difficult for him to wait and not eat them before I got to perform all my celebratory duties like taking these pictures. We celebrated in our community Movie in the Park event. Instead of lanterns, kids here were running around with glow sticks:) With the beautiful moon in sight, we had a little picnic with mooncake and fruits while watching Back to the Future.

California State Fair is here! Our schedule has been quite busy lately and there are so much activities and editing to do. We were contemplating whether we should go or not, and I’m so glad we did! The weather this week is in its 80s, sunny and a little breezy, which is perfect for walking outdoors. What I like about the state fair in comparison to other theme parks is the variety of attractions, such as animals, rides, exhibits, live shows, competitions, and yep the FOOD! Everything is deep fried and on a stick! And there are many interesting creations too like raccoon on a stick?! By far the most scary sign I saw was “Deep Fried Butter”! Aside from the weird stuff, we saw a lot of typical carnival food like funnel cakes, cotton candy, and corn dogs. We went Friday after work and I was pretty tired from the day. But once we arrived, I was so excited about our fantastic unhealthy dinner! I got the energy to last through the night!

A very popular item at the fair is the Turkey Leg. This is a huge smoked turkey leg smothered with bbq sauce. Definitely the tastiest thing we ate at the fair: cooked perfectly, fresh, moist, and big!

I also like the Catfish on a Stick and deep-fried artichoke hearts. The Giant Blooming Onion looked like a lot of fun, but it was too greasy and there was not enough dressing.

Here’s our Cherry Icee to wash everything down!

We were pretty full and grease out, so we explored other parts of the fair. The farm animals are so cute and you can get really close up to them. People bring their best animals to the state fair for prizes.

Before we knew it, the sun was beginning to set. We spent some time at the ferris wheel, games and rides section. I love looking at all the lights and design of the rides. Given that there was no peer pressure, I opted out on participating in being locked up in any torture spinning and scary height dropping machines. Yep I’m chicken >_<!

One thing I recommend seeing at the state fair this year is the Big Bug Exhibit. Very cool giant robotic bugs!

Even though we were having fun and relaxing on our day off, Yip wanted to do some filming. So stay tuned for some short clips!

We ended the night watching fireworks before the state fair closed. Overall, I enjoyed all the novelties of the carnival. Food was overpriced, but expected. Had more fun this time than few years ago. Didn’t have enough time to see everything, but I’m extremely happy spending date night with my sweetie. What a fun-filled Friday night and a great start to the rest my weekend!

There is still time to go! The California State Fair runs from July 14-31, 10am-10pm at the Cal Expo in Sacramento. $12 general admission + $10 parking.

Recently, I have an obsession with pigs due to my local farmer’s market celebration of National Pig Day. Every year in March, Davis Farmer’s Market throws a pig theme party. There are pig shaped bake goods such as sweet bread and cookies. Also plenty of pig relates food for sale like bbq ribs, pigs in a blanket, pulled-pork sandwiches, and mmm mmm BACON. For children, there are craft tables where they can make themselves pink pig noses and girls can get their hair braided in cute pigtails. Oh and I can’t forget, the little piggy petting zoo:) It’s a fun activity for family and friends to meet up for a picnic in the park.

Taking a pig balloon back home to enjoy. Stay tuned for my recipe for sweet pig shaped buns.